Abottabad, Vishal Bhardwaj's next film with Junglee Pictures is on Osama

Vishal Bhardwaj's versatility and ability to comprehend and create magic on screen is no secret. And so, we are super excited to reveal that Bhardwaj is now planning on making a prequel to the hit movie 'Zero Dark Thirty'.It is very evident that Bhardwaj has a thing for the stories set in turmoil - be it 'Maachis' or 'Haider'. The filmmaker had been reading a book called 'The Exile' lately, written by Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy, who also wrote 'The Siege', on the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.The 'Omkara' director says he conceptualised the plan for making a movie on the prequel about a year back. "The authors came to meet me and we had another chat about 'The Siege'. They told me about the next book they were working on - 'The Exile' - and I was sold on it in one line, when they said it's "the prequel to Zero Dark Thirty." That got me hooked. He added, "I wanted to read it. I signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement and reading it only convinced me further that I wanted a film like this, a global film, to come out of India, on a global story like this. We have been so trained to only cater to our market, and we have been so conditioned, that to break out of that is a very difficult task. All that we talk about is the opening of a film."He continued, "So, I took this to Junglee Pictures. And we agreed that there must be some liberation from the stereotype. It's time for India to tell a global story, a story that everyone needs to know."When asked what one should expect from the film, the filmmaker said, "The story is - What was Osama doing in all the time between Tora Bora and the day the choppers landed in Abbottabad? How did he spend those years? How did he configure a dish antenna to stay clued into TV on 9/11? How did they move from Karachi to Swat Valley to Abbottabad? How did the house at Abbottabad get built? How did his wives get to him? How did he record and send out his messages for so long without being intercepted? This 10-year journey is so gripping, so interesting, there is so much we don't really know or at least talk about," Vishal is by now bubbling over with excitement. "Did you know Parvez Musharraf, on several occasions when he was in Abbottabad, used to go jogging on a route that passed right in front of the house where Bin Laden was? Did you know that the attack on the Indian Parliament was timed in order to give Osama breathing space and enabled his escape from Tora Bora? How can you stay a fugitive with all the Western world out to get you, with all the technology, all the satellites - how do you dodge it all? With the ISI as partners in hunting him, at least officially, while one part of the ISI knew all along - this story is fascinating. There is so much to be told!"

Our next obvious question was if Laden was going to be the main character to which Bhardwaj said, "Yes and no. We are looking at this film from the perspective of the man who is chosen to guard and host the most important guest of Al-Qaeda in this house - Ibrahim. He kept guarding and protecting Osama for years. You need a protagonist to tell this story, and Osama Bin Laden cannot be this person. Ibrahim is a very relatable character - the rest are all so larger-than-life. The story starts from the point where this man is in awe of the guest, to the point where he feels compelled to give him an eviction notice."

Junglee Pictures has bought the rights to the book and will co-produce it with Vishal, who will, of course, helm the project. It’s titled Abbottabad.